Monday, March 11, 2013

By looking at current
forensics practices, archaeologists, historians, and artists delve into the
stories of people who lived and died long ago. There is an aura of mystery as skeletons are
found in seemingly unlikely places when long forgotten cemeteries are rediscovered
as sewer lines are dug up or new buildings are constructed.

What happens to the bones of
people who lived in times so different from our own when they are disinterred?

Mostly, the bones get
studied. Scientists look to see how
these individuals died, how old they were, how hard they worked, or how well or
poorly they ate. Further research about
the place the bones were buried typically provides additional information about
their living conditions and the context of their death, if they were part of a
larger historical event such as a battle, an epidemic or shipwreck or died of
more everyday causes like old age and poor health.

For me, the best part of
this book is when the faces of our ancestors stare back at us. Artists’ recreating the faces is a
fascinating process that has its roots going back to the 1800s.

The life stories of American
sailors, soldiers, slaves, servants, orphans, and the mentally ill are told
here. This nonfiction book has a great
sense of narrative like that of a mystery novel.

Again, investigators try to
find out who the people are and how they died.
This book presents the processes used to solve cases of unidentified
remains and missing persons in a more factual, typical nonfiction format. Interesting ‘cases’ are interspersed
throughout that pose a situation where human bodies have been found and then
how the cases were resolved. This book
gives us a very good sense about the wonders and sometimes the limitations of
technology.

Suggested for grades 4-8.

Every Bone Tells a Story: HomininDiscoveries, Deductions, and Debates by Jill Rubalcaba and Peter Robertshaw have just arrived at the
Doucette Library. It’s now been added to
my TBR (to-be-read) pile. Without having
read the book and glancing through its table of contents this book will focus
on remains of humans from thousands of years of ago, such as the Kennewick Man
(9,000 years ago), Otzi the Iceman (5300 ya), Turkana Boy (1,600,000 ya) and
the Lapedo Child (24,500 ya). Here too
there is lots of information about the science that goes into becoming
reacquainted with our ancestors. Each chapter has section entitled 'Deductions' and 'Debates' suggesting the dynamic nature of investigative research.

Suggested for grades 8 to
12.

Today is Nonfiction Monday being hosted at Sally's Bookshelf. Check out the interesting list of recommended nonfiction children's lit.

3
comments:

Tammy, these look like fascinating reads. We took DD to a Museum nearby where they have an exhibit on Human history and evolution. I wonder if there are any children's non-fiction books on this subject. It seems to be fascinating to DD.Thanks for sharing!-Reshamahttp://www.stackingbooks.com

My grandfather found some very old human bones on his farm in Northern Alberta and it took years at that time to get any information about them. I always wanted to know what happened at the university and how they could tell what they learned about them- maybe I should check these out to find out.

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About Me

I am the reference coordinator at The Doucette Library of Teaching Resources, a curriculum library in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.
I love connecting education students and teachers with engaging and exciting resources for classroom teaching. I believe that resources that get me excited (or those that get you excited) are the ones with the best potential to get kids interested in learning about - well, everything. Finding those books that connect to the real world are the ones I enjoy promoting the most.